Greys & Things

What are your Christmas Eve traditions?

Growing up, Christmas Eve was my favorite day of the year.  I would get so excited that I would make myself sick or that is what I have been told.  I remember when I was six that I heard on TV that it was Christmas Eve.  I asked my parents if that was true and they said it was and that they hadn’t told me because I get too excited.  I guess I wasn’t a very observant child or I would have known it was the 24th of December.

Christmas Eve is when Santa would come to our house.  We would always go out for dinner.  My Dad, brother and I would go out to the car and wait for my Mom. My Dad would end up going back into the house to see what was taking her so long.  I was young and didn’t realize that they were actually putting the presents out for us.  We would come home from dinner and our presents would be all around the tree.  We would rip open the gifts.  It was magical.

The biggest surprise was when I was 3 or 4.  We arrived home from my grandmother’s house, which was our tradition at that time, and Santa had not arrived.    A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and there he was.  He brought all of presents inside and then sat down and had a talk with us.  We have it all on tape, no not video tape, but the type you play on a projector.  There is no sound.  My brother is seen running in and out of the house helping Santa bring in the presents.  Here is a photo of me from that special evening.

I still love Christmas Eve, but we really do not have a tradition with it now.  It really depends on if we are having a family get together that day.  We like to go out to dinner if we have not had a family event that day.  If we have had a family event, we are usually too full to eat out. We have found in more recent years that many restaurants are closed on Christmas Eve.  I have found that fixing a nice steak dinner at home is just as nice as going out.  We haven’t decided what we are doing this year. What about you?